Czech Football Season 2019/2020

[Bulgarian]

Would you reckon though that playing a cup final in your stadium gives you a big advantage (if there is a certain % spectators as well)?

[quelhar]

Would you reckon though that playing a cup final in your stadium gives you a big advantage (if there is a certain % spectators as well)?

It is definitely quite a big advantage for Liberec, even with the fact that spectators should be 50/50 among both clubs. Nevertheless, Sparta is a favourite to win this trophy.

[Meister Ether]

Next big game in czech football is:

Cup Final
July 1: Liberec - Sparta Praha (played in Liberec)

Sparta is a favourite, having wide squad they rested most of their starting players on Sunday. Liberec on the other hand played in full strength on Saturday against Baník Ostrava, Liberec doesn't have such a wide squad and played already 11 matches since May 23. The winner will qualify to EL Q3 with some theoretical chance for direct promotion to the group stage if this season Europa League winner qualifies to EL GS through their league.

The candidates:
Certain:
- Leverkusen finished 5th in Bundesliga
Possible:
- AS Roma and SSC Neapel can finish 5th/6th in Serie A
- Wolves may do it as well, 6th certain if Arsenal don't win the FA Cup. Should ManCity's ban be confirmed, even 7th might do.
- ManUnited just like Wolves + the chance of a FA Cup win
- Getafe as 5th in LaLiga
- FC Sevill as 5th in LaLiga
Long shots:
- Basaks if they are caught by two of Gala/Sivas/Besiktas and banned Trabzon win the cup
- LASK as domestic 3rd, turning a home defeat of 0:5 against ManUnited
Another but rather slim chance:
SSC Neapel winning CL would also work as they ensured ELGS by winning Coppa Italia. If that's the case, the CL-TH slot will be used and an ELGS slot become vacant at the same time.

Still, we have to wait who will finish at the right position domestically and survive R16 and QF to waste another thought.

[quelhar]

Cup Final
July 1: Liberec - Sparta Praha 1:2

Sparta wins their first trophy in six years. Quite a controversial match in the first half, the agreement in the media sphere is that Frýdek should have been sent off at the end of first half for stomping on the opponent. Liberec then took the lead in the second half, Sparta equalized and the match was decided by home goalkeeper Knobloch who made a blunder, was forced to foul Tetteh and Kanga scored from the spot.

As Sparta will almost surely finish third in the league, this means that N4 will go to the EL Q2 and N5 will play in the Europa final match at home against the winner of the tie between Bohemians and Mladá Boleslav.

[quelhar]

Huge problem for the rest of the season of top czech flight.

There are reportedly up to 7 people infected with the coronavirus in Karviná. Their matches along with all other matches in the relegation group are postponed indefinitely. The title group and the Europa playoff final should proceed as planned on weekend and then on Tuesday and Wednesday, so the top 10 spots should be decided in a week. The fate of the relegation group is now unclear and there is even a possibility, that it will stay unfinished and no club will be relegated. In that case the winner of the FNL would join the top flight and next season would be played with 17 teams, but everything in this direction has to be decided at the meeting of officials of all 32 clubs from top two czech divisions.

Title group round 4
July 5: Liberec - Slavia Praha
July 5: Ostrava - Plzeň
July 5: Sparta Praha - Jablonec

Europa playoff final 1
July 4: Mladá Boleslav - Bohemians

What to watch for?
- In the title group there is little left to play, Liberec faces Slavia and Jablonec plays at Sparta, considering the circumstances, I would expect both Liberec and Jablonec to lose, so no change in the fight for N4 spot. Ostrava has to win in order to keep hope for European cups, but they are really miserable at the end of the season
- the Europa playoff final should be interesting, Bohemians is a slight favourite to advance here.

[Firnen]

7 people infected is a reason to postpone the games? We have like 10 new cases per day in Xanthi and things proceed normally (Xanthi is in the relegation play-out group).

[quelhar]

7 people infected is a reason to postpone the games? We have like 10 new cases per day in Xanthi and things proceed normally (Xanthi is in the relegation play-out group).

Sorry for not being clear. It is (up to) 7 people in the club itself, not the town. Some players and surely the club doctor himself.

[Firnen]

7 people infected is a reason to postpone the games? We have like 10 new cases per day in Xanthi and things proceed normally (Xanthi is in the relegation play-out group).

Sorry for not being clear. It is (up to) 7 people in the club itself, not the town. Some players and surely the club doctor himself.

Ah OK it makes sense then. Since it does not affect European spots though, so no UEFA deadline, can't they just finish the relegation play-offs later?

[dnina10]

7 people infected is a reason to postpone the games? We have like 10 new cases per day in Xanthi and things proceed normally (Xanthi is in the relegation play-out group).

Sorry for not being clear. It is (up to) 7 people in the club itself, not the town. Some players and surely the club doctor himself.

Ah OK it makes sense then. Since it does not affect European spots though, so no UEFA deadline, can't they just finish the relegation play-offs later?

Remember at some point they do have to start getting ready for next season. I see what you mean, but it all depends on how long we'd be talking about putting it off for.

An inquiry to you @quelhar. You said should the relegation group not be finished, there would be no relegation, with the possibility that the FNL winner would promote, having 17 teams next season. Wouldn't it be better to promote the top 2 to have an even number of teams for next season? Having an odd number of teams is always too complicated, and it's something I'd avoid at all costs (which is avoidable here). What do you think, is it possible?

[quelhar]

7 people infected is a reason to postpone the games? We have like 10 new cases per day in Xanthi and things proceed normally (Xanthi is in the relegation play-out group).

Sorry for not being clear. It is (up to) 7 people in the club itself, not the town. Some players and surely the club doctor himself.

Ah OK it makes sense then. Since it does not affect European spots though, so no UEFA deadline, can't they just finish the relegation play-offs later?

Well, in theory yes, but it has to be discussed. The new season should start August 22, there is a need to have some time for the league to prepare (in particular for clubs promoted from the second division), so there is not that much time to play the remaining matches and in particular the relegation playoff. The situation is at this point very unclear.

However, as you pointed out, this situation should in no way affect the UEFA qualification spots, just the promotion and relegation in czech league.

[quelhar]

An inquiry to you @quelhar. You said should the relegation group not be finished, there would be no relegation, with the possibility that the FNL winner would promote, having 17 teams next season. Wouldn't it be better to promote the top 2 to have an even number of teams for next season? Having an odd number of teams is always too complicated, and it's something I'd avoid at all costs (which is avoidable here). What do you think, is it possible?

My opinion is quite clear, it would be the best solution to promote 2 clubs, get rid of the playoffs altogether and play czech league with 18 clubs (i.e. 34 matches in the season) from next season on. However this opinion is probably not shared with the league officials and they want to keep 16 clubs league with playoffs, so having 18 clubs next season would mean up to 4 clubs relegating next season and that seems to be a huge problem for clubs usually facing relegation (essentially half of the league).

[quelhar]

Update on the Karviná situation: Local authorities ordered the whole club to go to quarantine for 14 days, meaning that there is a high probability that the relegation group will remain unfinished. However the final decision will be up to the league meeting.

In sort of typical czech manner of unprofesionalism, the virus probably entered the club through one youth coach who also works in the mines. Meanwhile the mines of Karviná are for weeks known to be the epicenter of coronavirus infection in the region, yet noone thought that it is a bad idea for this person to continue to meet people in the club including the players of the A squad.

[quelhar]

Three rounds remaining in FNL (second division) and the fight for the title is as follows:

1. Pardubice 64 points
2. Brno 60 points
3. Dukla Praha 50 points
4. Žižkov 46 points

If the relegation group of the first league remains unfinished, only the champion of FNL will be promoted.

remaining matches for Pardubice: Třinec (N13) away, Vyšehrad (N12) home, Žižkov (N4) away
remaining matches for Brno: Vyšehrad (N12) away, Prostějov (N8) away, Vlašim (N11) home

It really seems that Pardubice will play the top division next season despite Brno being much wealthier.

[quelhar]

Title group round 4
July 5: Liberec - Slavia Praha 1:3
July 5: Ostrava - Plzeň 0:0
July 5: Sparta Praha - Jablonec 3:0

Europa playoff final 1
July 4: Mladá Boleslav - Bohemians 3:0

Highlights of this round
- Ostrava is surely out of Europe after only drawing against Plzeň. Milan Baroš announced the end of his career at the end of this season. He had beautiful career, in particular being top scorer of Euro 2004 and winning the Champions League with Liverpool in 2005.
- Both Jablonec and Liberec lost against the Prague "S"s and it will be up to the final round to decide who will end N4. In the case of equality of points Jablonec would have the upper hand
- crazy new fact was revealed in the news on Friday. The rules of the league state, that if the league remains unfinished (even if it is just the relegation group), no Europa playoff match between N5 and winner of the Europa playoff final will be played and N5 would go to Europe. This was a surprise to everyone and it might get fixed at the meeting of owners of clubs later this month, as things stand now however, winning the Europa playoff final would be useless and there would be no chance for the winner of Europa playoff final to go to European cups.
- knowing this, Mladá Boleslav faced Bohemians and won quite decisively, 3:0 at home in the first leg is great position to advance to possible future Europa playoff match.

Title group table after Round 4:
1. Slavia Praha 34 26 6 2 69:12 84
2. Plzeň 34 22 7 5 64:24 73
3. Sparta Praha 34 17 8 9 66:40 59
4. Liberec 34 15 6 13 55:47 51
5. Jablonec 34 14 8 12 47:51 50
6. Ostrava 34 12 10 12 46:42 46

Champions League CHQ3 (possibly CHQ4), Champions League NCQ2, Europa League Q3 (possibly GS), cup winner, Europa League Q2, Europa playoff

Top scorers
14 - Petar Musa (LIB/SLA), Libor Kozák (SPA)
13 - Lukáš Budínský (MLB)
12 - Guélor Kanga (SPA), Jakub Řezníček (TEP)
10 - Nikolay Komlichenko (MLB), Michael Krmenčík (PLZ), Martin Doležal (JAB), Pavel Bucha (MLB/PLZ), Roman Potočný (LIB/OST)
9 - Ivan Schranz (CEB), Tomáš Poznar (ZLN)
8 - Tomáš Souček (SLA), Muris Mešanovič (MLB), Jan Sýkora (JAB), Nemanja Kuzmanović (OST), Lukáš Juliš (OLO)
7 - Jakub Plšek (OLO), Tomáš Zajíc (SLO), Tomáš Malinský (LIB), Benjamin Tetteh (SPA), Jan Kopic (PLZ), Jakub Mareš (TEP), Michal Škoda (PRI), Ondřej Lingr (KAR), Adam Hložek (SPA)
6 - 13 players

Top assists
11 - Nicolae Stanciu (SLA)
10 - Adriel Ba Loua (KAR)
8 - Pavel Bucha (MLB/PLZ), Aleš Čermák (PLZ), Tomáš Malinský (LIB)
7 - Marek Matějovský (MLB), Vladimir Jovovič (JAB), Adam Hložek (SPA), Jiří Fleišman (OST), Petr Ševčík (SLA)
6 - Jan Sýkora (JAB), Benjamin Čolič (CEB)
5 - Lukáš Budínský (MLB), Martin Fillo (OST), Patrik Brandner (CEB), Guélor Kanga (SPA), Lukáš Kalvach (PLZ), Matej Mršič (CEB), Martin Frýdek (SPA), Ondřej Šašinka (OST), David Moberg Karlsson (SPA), Tomáš Hořava (PLZ)
4 - 19 players

(players in italic are no longer in the league)

[quelhar]

Title group round 5
July 8: Slavia Praha - Sparta Praha
July 8: Plzeň - Liberec
July 8: Jablonec - Ostrava

Europa playoff final leg 2
July 7: Bohemians - Mladá Boleslav (first leg 0:3)

What to watch for?
- the fight for N4 is now a question whether Jablonec wins more points than Liberec on Wednesday.
- even though there is nothing left to play for, the big Prague derby will still be important to both clubs and both clubs are expected to field their top squads
- Europa playoff final seems to be decided after the first leg, will Bohemians be able to overcome three goals deficit?
- no action in the relegation group is expected this week, club of Karviná is still in quarantine, and the fate of the relegation group should be decided in the talks of the owners of league clubs...